Tenth Grade Bleeds

surprised. She had every right to be. He took a breath and said, “Can I call Henry?”

Nelly blinked up at him, her eyes red from crying. “I don’t know. Are you allowed phone calls?”

Vlad sighed and sat on the bottom step. “I don’t know. Don’t you kinda make up the rules on that?”

“Your mom would know what to do.” Nelly’s voice cracked. “If she was still here, things would be different. You wouldn’t be acting the way you’ve been acting.”

Vlad tilted his head, meeting her eyes. “How have I been acting?”

Nelly reached for another tissue, tears retracing the tracks on her cheeks. “Like a teenager, I suppose. But you have to understand, Vladimir, I’ve never dealt with a teenager before. Let alone a teenager as… special as you.”

Special. Vlad’s insides shrank a little. What a nice way of pointing out what a freak of nature he was. He was sure Nelly hadn’t meant it that way, but that didn’t erase the hurt.

Nelly took a shuddered breath. “I have no idea what I’m doing.”

Vlad’s face flushed, and he felt sick to his stomach. He had no idea he’d been hurting Nelly like that. “Nelly, I’ve been a teenager for a couple of years now. And you’re doing fine. I just… there’s a lot of stuff going on right now that I can’t talk to you about.”

Nelly’s eyes grew wide with concern. “What kind of stuff? Girl stuff? Friend stuff? Drug stuff? Gang stuff?”

Vlad suppressed a smile. It was sweet how she worried endlessly about him. “More like vampire stuff.”

“Oh.” Nelly relaxed some, then asked, “Do you want to talk about it?”

Vlad sighed and ran a hand through his hair, brushing his bangs from his eyes. “ That’s the thing. I want to, but there are these… laws. And I’m not exactly sure what I can tell you and what I can’t.”

Nelly nodded. “Otis mentioned something about vampiric laws. He said that he broke one in telling me he was a vampire, and that that’s one of the reasons he can’t stay here with us.”

Vlad blinked, suddenly curious what else Otis had shared with his guardian. “ That’s one of them. But there are a ton more, and I have to be careful not to break any more. Because I don’t want to put you in any more danger from Elysia just because I couldn’t keep my mouth shut.”

Nelly was quiet for a good long time. Finally she dried her eyes and nodded. “ That makes sense, I suppose. So what you’re saying is, don’t ask too many questions?”

Vlad sighed, the sick feeling dissipating. “ That’s about it, yeah. I wish Otis were here.”

“So do I, sweetie.” Nelly straightened in her seat. “Okay. But I have to ask one question, or I’ll never be able to sleep at night. Did something happen last night that you can’t tell me… or that you won’t?”

Then it was Vlad’s turn to be quiet. Finally he shook his head, hoping she’d believe his lie. For both their sakes. “It’s not what you think, Nelly. I meant what I said before. I just got a little messy with a midnight snack, that’s all.”

To his enormous relief, Nelly visibly relaxed. “You should be more careful, Vladimir.”

He nodded, the burden of guilt heavy on his chest. “I know. I’ll try.”

Nelly nodded in return. “Are you going to call Henry now?”

“Am I still grounded?”

She sighed and met Vlad’s eyes with a forgiving smile. “I suppose I can’t really ground you for trying to protect me.”

Vlad shoved his hands in his pockets and turned to walk out of the room, then paused and looked back at his aunt. “ Thanks, Nelly.”

Before he could reach for the phone, there was a knock at the door. Vlad opened it to reveal Henry, who looked as if he’d just run all the way from his house. Breathless, Henry steadied himself again the doorjamb and managed to puff out, “I thought of a safe way you can hand over the journal.”

Vlad hushed him and opened the door, muttering quietly to Nelly as he ascended the stairs that he and Henry were going to hang out in his room for a while. Once safe inside his bedroom with the door firmly shut, Vlad turned to Henry and said, “First off, how did you know I’ve been making plans all day to return the journal, and second off, what are the odds you’d show up at my house just as I was about to call you?”

“You mentioned giving back the journal last night. And… I dunno, I just couldn’t shake the idea. What’s the big deal?”

Vlad shook his head. He didn’t want to bring up how Henry always seemed to show up when Vlad needed him, even without being told. It was like he could beckon his drudge without even thinking about it- something he knew would freak Henry out. “No big deal. I was just curious. What’s your plan?”

“We ship it FedEx.”

Vlad blinked and tried hard not to look at his best friend like he was a complete and total idiot, but he was pretty sure he was failing. And with good reason.

Henry frowned. “What? It makes the most sense. They’ll deliver it straight to D’Ablo and you don’t have to share the same air as him.”

Vlad shook his head. “So your answer to my problem is to put someone else in harm’s way? Henry, what if he killed the FedEx guy?”

“At least it wouldn’t be you.”

It was touching in an odd way that Henry would rather some poor delivery driver bought the farm than Vlad, but still. “I can’t do that. I have to go to Stokerton myself. And I have to do it tonight, after Nelly’s asleep.”

Henry sighed, scratching his head in frustration. “What time are we leaving?”

“We?” Vlad cocked an eyebrow at him. If Henry thought he was tagging along, he was crazy. It was stupid enough that Vlad was willingly going to face the man that had almost been responsible for Vlad’s death… twice. He wasn’t about to subject Henry to D’Ablo’s insane bouts of moodiness.

Henry’s eyes widened in shock as realization sunk in. “You don’t think I’m letting you go back to Elysia to face that jerk alone, do you?”

“Henry, he could kill you. I at least have this Pravus thing going for me, y’know? He could hurt me, but I’ll live. I know I will. But in order to protect you, I have to leave you here.” Vlad met his gaze and held it, wanting very much for Henry to just drop the subject completely and realize that Vlad was only doing it for his own good.

Henry searched Vlad’s face. Then his jaw tightened. “Are you going to order me to stay?”

“Do I have to?”

“Look. What if these dreams you’ve been having are predictions of the future, like you thought? You’re gonna need some backup. If you order me to stay here, you’ll be on your own, strapped to some bloody table deep in the heart of the council building, right?” Dire need crossed Henry’s eyes. The need to help. “Otis isn’t here to save you. I am.”

Vlad sighed and ran a careless hand through his hair. He chewed his bottom lip for a moment before meeting Henry’s eyes again. “We leave at midnight.”

Henry grinned, victorious. “I’ll drive.”

Vlad shook his head. He couldn’t believe he and Henry were going to face D’Ablo together- and he really couldn’t believe Henry was stupid enough to think they’d actually survive. “ There are about a million things wrong with that, but the top two that come to mind are that you don’t have a license and you don’t have a car.”

“I have a permit and I can borrow Greg’s car.” Vlad must have looked just as horrified at the idea of Henry driving as he felt, because Henry frowned and said, “What? You rode with me last night.”

“Last night I was distracted, and fearing more for your life than my own.”

Henry huffed. “I’m a good driver.”

“Who says? Your mom?”

“Actually, no. She won’t even get in the car with me, says it makes her sick to even think of it.”